CLA Session

We warmly welcome you to take part in a methodological session onCAUSAL LAYERED ANALYSIS (CLA) on Thursday 11th of June at 15:00–16:30 and 16:30–18:00, Lecture Room 07.

In the session, we will work in small groups and conduct a Causal Layered Analysis game on four scenarios from the ongoing Neo-Carbon Energy project. The scenarios depict a world of renewable distributed energy and peer-to-peer organisations in the year 2050. The developer of the method, Professor Sohail Inayatullah, will give an introductory talk, moderate the groups and comment on the results.

The number of participants is limited. If you are interested in participating in the session, please fill in the following form by June 9, indicating which scenario group you would like to work in. The scenarios are summarised below.

1) Radical Startups – Society is business-oriented, but economy is driven by a multitude of small-scale startups known for their “radical” values and approaches. Their selling point is promising to do societal and environmental good. Environmental problems are solved first and foremost commercially. Businesses are drivers of new, deep-ecologically oriented lifestyles as well as new work practices emphasising bottom-up approaches and self-expression.

2) Value-Driven Techemoths – Peer-to-peer approaches are common, but they are practiced within large corporations. These “techemoths” represent the Silicon Valley vision of emancipation, creativity and open source. The vision is, however, somewhat self-contradictory. Techemoths cherish the “libertarian” hacker ethos, but at the same time form totalities that confine their employees tightly within corporate walls. Markets take care of environmental issues. Techemoths invest in ambitious energy & technology projects.

3) Green DIY Engineers – The world has faced an ecological collapse. Engineer-oriented citizens have organized themselves as local communities to survive. Environmental problems are solved locally, with a practical mindset. Nation states and national cultures have more or less withered away. As global trade has plummeted, communities have to cope with mostly low-tech solutions.

4) New Consciousness – An ecological crisis, “World War III” and ubiquitous ICTs have led to a new kind of consciousness and worldview altogether. Values of deep ecology have become the norm. People do not conceive themselves as separate individuals, but deeply intertwined with other humans and as parts of nature. Phenomena are conceptualized and understood from a systems-oriented worldview, which sees “everything connected to everything else” – as parts of a single, global system. “Society” is organised as an open global collaboration and sharing of resources and information.